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lean manufacturing articles and lean thinking

How to Achieve Lean ManufacturingLean manufacturing is a transformational exercise that requires an organization to cast aside long-held beliefs and business processes. The five main steps to

lean manufacturing articles and lean thinking to Achieve Lean Manufacturing How Should One Go About Achieving Lean? Part One of this series provided one definition of lean manufacturing (see Lean Manufacturing: A Primer ). However, another way to encompass the lean philosophy is Womack and Jones' 1996 definitions of the five main steps to achieving lean transition for enterprises. These steps are now widely accepted as a sort of lean manufacturing life cycle. The following are the five main elements of enabling a lean approach. Define value Map

The simplified definition of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a set of applications that automate finance and human resources departments and help manufacturers handle jobs such as order processing and production scheduling. ERP began as a term used to describe a sophisticated and integrated software system used for manufacturing. In its simplest sense, ERP systems create interactive environments designed to help companies manage and analyze the business processes associated with manufacturing goods, such as inventory control, order taking, accounting, and much more. Although this basic definition still holds true for ERP systems, today its definition is expanding.
Today's leading ERP systems group all traditional company management functions (finance, sales, manufacturing, human resources) and include, with varying degrees of acceptance and skill, many solutions that were formerly considered peripheral (product data management (PDM), warehouse management, manufacturing execution system (MES), reporting, etc.). While during the last few years the functional perimeter of ERP systems began an expansion into its adjacent markets, such as supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence/data warehousing, and e-Business, the focus of this knowledge base is mainly on the traditional ERP realms of finance, materials planning, and human resources. The old adage is "Such a beginning, such an end", and, consequently, many ERP systems' failures could be traced back to a bad software selection. The foundation of any ERP implementation must be a proper exercise of aligning customers' IT technology with their business strategy, and subsequent software selection. This is the perfect time to create the business case and energize the entire organization towards the vision sharing and a buy in, both being the Key Success Factors (KSFs). Yet, these steps are very often neglected despite the amount of expert literature and articles that emphasize their importance.

Documents related to »lean manufacturing articles and lean thinking

You know the statistics—lean can shorten your lead times, reduce inventories, cut operating costs, free up resources, and more. But countless surveys have confirmed that most lean initiatives fail to deliver expected and needed results. Why? Are successes confined to a restricted list of industry sectors? Are only "lean experts" capable of leading an organization through a successful implementation?

When flexibility and speed are requisites for success, it’s the lean organization that leads the race. World-class manufacturing organizations know the value of focusing on the lean fundamentals: eliminating waste, simplifying processes, and continuously improving. By pursuing lean strategies—optimizing inventory and streamlining manufacturing processes—they can reduce inefficiencies and costs in their production processes, and improve customer responsiveness.

It’s common knowledge that asset downtime disrupts production and drives up both process and per-unit operating costs. However, executives often lose sight of this because they focus on output, not on the assets used to create it. The irony is that companies can use asset performance management not only to make more widgets, but to make each widget more profitably.

What does it mean to be a world-class competitor? It means being successful in your market against any competition—regardless of size or country of origin. It means matching or exceeding any competitor on quality, lead time, cost, customer service, and innovation. It means picking your battles—competing on the terms dictated by you. But how do you get there?

Most lean manufacturing deployments target production operations, but can also be extended to other supply chain processes. To realize the multiplicative benefits of real time information and reduced inventory, companies must assess their production environment and supply chain activities.

In the manufacturing arena, lean is a top topic. And though companies expect a big payoff from the lean approach to manufacturing—including increases in production capacity and product quality, reduced production time and inventories, etc.—there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ philosophy of applying lean principles to every manufacturing organization. Find out how you need to view lean to get the most out of it for your particular organization.

How can we determine the right maintenance strategy for a specific asset? To meet the objectives of lean, we need to evaluate the cost of failure in terms of both not meeting business objectives and any extra cost due to the need for unplanned or even emergency repairs.

You have convinced upper management that flow manufacturing will enable your company to leapfrog the competition. You have appointed a flow process leader, and selected a line for your flow pilot. Now it’s time to physically perform your first line implementation. The big question is, what exactly do you need to do to make the transition from discrete to flow?